newbie issue saving game [win platform]

[JimGreen]

Hi I am new to Oolite. I played the Elite and Frontier games on my Amiga back in the day. I was addicted for too long

I have downloaded and installed version 1.73.4. and am running Oolite on Win Vista on a laptop. The game looks great I have managed to start the game without problem (manual docking, trading, and refuelled successfully), I can't seem to save the game.

I read the docs and docked first, I enter the menu via F2 and clicked save game, then navigated to the oolite-saves folder. At this point I am unable to figure out how to proceed.

I've tried renaming the commanders name, pressing enter, double clicking the name, browsing to a different folder to no avail.

I hope I am not being dumb and missing something obvious. Can anyone advise how I should typically save the game? Or advise if there is a known bug?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, I am really looking forward to playing this but one marathon session is too hardcore for me.

[Diziet Sma]

Hi Jim, and welcome to "the friendliest board this side of Riedquat!"™

There are no known saving bugs. Pressing enter on the name you wish to use is the normal method of saving. Changing the name and pressing enter should have been enough to create a new gamesave. If you did not change 'Jameson' to something else, and a 'Jameson' file already existed, when you pressed enter you should be asked if you wish to overwrite the file.

I wonder.. did you change the default installation location from C:\Oolite to something else, such as C:\Program Files\Oolite? Vista and Windows 7 have a "security feature" nasty habit of creating local per-user copies of changes/saves in C:\Program Files\ in a hidden folder and silently redirecting accesses to those files. It's caused lots of problems in the past. This could be the source of your troubles.

If you did do this, I'd recommend uninstalling Oolite and installing to the default location. To rescue the save you made but can't find, look in C:\User\YOUR NAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\ and make a copy of it, then save it to C:\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\ after you re-install.

Hope this helps..

[JimGreen]

I wonder.. did you change the default installation location from C:\Oolite to something else, such as C:\Program Files\Oolite? Vista and Windows 7 have a "security feature" nasty habit of creating local per-user copies of changes/saves in C:\Program Files\ in a hidden folder and silently redirecting accesses to those files. It's caused lots of problems in the past. This could be the source of your troubles.

If you did do this, I'd recommend uninstalling Oolite and installing to the default location. To rescue the save you made but can't find, look in C:\User\YOUR NAME\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\ and make a copy of it, then save it to C:\Oolite\oolite.app\oolite-saves\ after you re-install.

Hope this helps..

Thanks for the warm welcome I did change the install directory on initial install (should have mentioned that in initial post sorry). Having read about the issues with Vista, I installed to root directory of my data partition.

I have re-installed to the default location (root of system drive). I still have the same problem saving:(

I started a new game, while docked I switch to the F2 menu, I then browse to the save folder inside the game directory (using the mouse). I then press enter using the default name with no reaction (I also changed the commander name).

I checked the log file and can't see any indication of errors generated by the application. I have a suspicion I am doing something wrong.

[Svengali]

Please check a few things.

- Is there a change if you're changing Fullscreen/Windowed?
- Is your savedgames folder write protetcted? (shouldn't be a problem, but who knows).
- Are you using restricted mode?

And welcome here .-)

[another_commander]

What laptop are you using? I seem to recall a similar issue some time ago with a particular laptop type.

[JimGreen]

Please check a few things.

- Is there a change if you're changing Fullscreen/Windowed?
- Is your savedgames folder write protetcted? (shouldn't be a problem, but who knows).
- Are you using restricted mode?

And welcome here .-)

Hi thanks for the response.

>fullscreen/windowed - same issue in both modes
>read/write permissions - able to write,read and delete (via explorer)
>restricted mode - I am not aware of a restricted mode (not using Strict mode either)

How should the save process work?

Do you think that running in XP compatibility mode could help?

[JimGreen]

What laptop are you using? I seem to recall a similar issue some time ago with a particular laptop type.

Hi, I am using an Acer Aspire 6930 running Vista Home Premium SP2. It has a GeForce 9300GS.

I have a slow eeePC (4G) with a custom Crunchbang distro, I might attempt install on that, its just a shame as my Acer should be perfect for this game.

This is one of the friendliest forums I've seen. I hope I can get Oolite working and contribute back to the forum. Thanks to all for the helpful suggestions so far

[another_commander]

Please try downloading one of the nightly builds from here. I believe this is the same problem we had with the Alienware M15x and should be resolved in trunk. Note that this is just to confirm that the bug is fixed for the next release, if you decide to use the nightly build for play, then be advised it might exhibit unpredictable behavior.

[another_commander]

JimGreen kindly PM'd me to notify me that the nightly build has worked for him. He seems to be getting a general error when trying to post though, so I will have to put the response up on behalf of him.

Jim, can you clear your browser's cache and try to login again?